MOGU's app is called Mogujie, which means mushroom street, and it sold clothes through people rather than shelves. Fashion influencers on the platform posted live video, short clips and photos, and viewers bought straight from the stream. Tencent, owner of WeChat, was one of its principal shareholders and steered its users to MOGU's store inside the messaging app. In December 2018 the Hangzhou company went public in New York.

Two Fashion Apps Become One

MOGU's holding company was set up in June 2011. Its co-founder, Qi Chen, served as chairman and chief executive. In February 2016 it bought Meilishuo, another big online fashion platform in China. MOGU stated its mission as making fashion accessible to everyone. It worked with influencers who got actual products from brands and merchants and turned them into content. The bet was that young shoppers would buy what people they followed wore on camera.

Fourteen Dollars an ADS

MOGU priced its American depositary shares at $14 each in December 2018 and listed on the New York Stock Exchange as MOGU, raising $66.5 million. Qi Chen kept about 79 percent of the voting power. Bigger rivals such as Alibaba and Pinduoduo, along with short-video apps, crowded into live-stream selling. MOGU's sales shrank and its shares fell far below the offering price. It is still listed in New York.

Cover: Mushrooms, Shibata Zeshin. Art Institute of Chicago, public domain. Chosen for mushrooms (Mogujie, 'mushroom street').